Notes vs Headings vs Bullets

I’d like your thoughts on when and why you use notes, headings, and bullets.

In my mind, they are kind of all a different approach to the same problem: organizing data. Each has its own pro and con. But unfortunately a big friction point that I keep encountering when I write something in Obsidian is I keep asking myself “Should I use a bullet, heading, or separate note?” Here are the pros and cons I see:

  • Notes
    • +: Notes are 1st class citizens w/in Obsidian.
    • +: Notes are visible w/in the graph view
    • -: Sometimes I want to see everything together in one page. this doesn’t work well if they’re all in separate notes.
    • -: Doesn’t show in outline view.
      • (I understand. How would separate notes show in an outline view? Doesn’t make sense, especially since notes are a non-hierarchical, many to one relationship. I’m just saying that, if you’re looking in an Outline view, and are trying to see relationships to other notes, then you have to switch to graph view).
  • Headings
    • +: Shows up in the outline view
    • +: collapsible
    • -: Doesn’t show in graph view
    • -: Sometimes Headings get filled with so much content that they feel like they need to graduate to a separate note.
    • -: Bullets are better at showing hierarchy than headings. It’s easier to see an indent then a slightly different size font.
  • Bullets
    • +: Collapsible
    • -: Does not show up in Outline view (if only🙏🏻)
    • -: Doesn’t show in graph view

There are a few tools that I’ve found that make it easier to convert between these 3 but it could be better:

  • Note Refactor plugin: Note extractor
    • Converts sections of notes (e.g. Headings) into separate notes and automatically adds backlinks
  • Embed notes into other notes
  • Embed headings into other notes
  • Links to headings
  • Links to blocks

Please let me know if you find any other tools that make it easier to switch between the three. Especially right now, I don’t have an easy way to convert back and forth between bullets and headings.

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